After the Expulsion

West Germany and Eastern Europe 1945-1990

Pertti Ahonen

Major contribution to our understanding of West Germany's role in the Cold War

First scholarly study of the biggest single forced migration in modern European history

Reveals the long-term consequences of the settlement in West Germany of Germans expelled from central and eastern Europe

After the Expulsion

West Germany and Eastern Europe 1945-1990

Pertti Ahonen

Description

This book breaks new ground by connecting two central problems faced by the Federal Republic of Germany prior to reunification in 1990, both of them rooted in the Second World War. Domestically, the country had to integrate eight million expellees forced out of their homes in Central and Eastern Europe as a result of the lost war. Externally, it had to re-establish relations with Eastern Europe, despite the burdens of the Nazi past, the expulsions, and the ongoing East-West struggle in the Cold War.

After the Expulsion

West Germany and Eastern Europe 1945-1990

Pertti Ahonen

Table of Contents

IntroductionPart I. Establishing the Pattern 1949-1955 1. From the Expulsions to the Rise of the Expellee Organizations2. The Programmes and Strategies of the Expellee Organizations3. The Responses and Policies of the Main Parties4. Adenauer's Foreign Policy and the ExpelleesPart II. the Pattern in Practice 1949-1966 5. Ostpolitik Options and Expellee Influence 1955-19596. Ostpolitik Options and Expellee Influence 1959-1966Part III. The Collapse of the Pattern 1966-1969 7. The Grand Coalition as the Turning-Point 1966-19698. From the New Ostpolitik to Reunification 1969-1970ConclusionBibliographyIndex

After the Expulsion

West Germany and Eastern Europe 1945-1990

Pertti Ahonen

Reviews and Awards

"Ahonen's conclusions are convincingly argued, and his book on the whole offers a clear and compelling narrative of the development of expellee organizations and their influence on policy up to 1969, covering the period after 1969 in a brief concluding chapter....Ahonen's work will be essential reading for all students and scholars of postwar West German politics and diplomacy."--American Historical Review